


Full Circle

by paradoxicalShipper



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Harry Potter as a teacher
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-27
Updated: 2016-02-27
Packaged: 2018-05-23 13:25:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,354
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6117806
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paradoxicalShipper/pseuds/paradoxicalShipper
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's a new year at Hogwarts. As the students are sorted and the students await the grand feast, the Headmistress stands up to announce the new teacher. “Let us give a warm welcome, to your new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Potter!”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Full Circle

**Author's Note:**

> Idk I wrote this at like 12 in the morning based off a headcanon of Harry becoming the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts. It's rather pointless, mostly just for fun. First fic and I'm not really thinking about this too hard because otherwise I'd just be too nervous to post it. Please let me know what you think!

It was the start of a new year at Hogwarts. The first years filed in from the boat, carriages pulled through the gates, luggage floated down the hallways, students filing in in their fresh school robes, chattering away in the Great Hall. 

Minerva Mcgonagall presided over the assembly from the Headmaster’s chair, watching as the first years, with their fresh faces and eyes full of stars bustled to the front of the hall. It was no longer her job to usher in the students, but she enjoyed seeing the wonder of their faces as they stepped into the Hall and beheld its majesty, year after year. 

The Sorting Hat was carried out by a teacher, its crooked and torn brim even more in tatters after its many abuses during the war. It sits crumpled on its stool, until it seems to heave, and bursts into a cheerful song proclaiming the values of the four houses, telling the stories of the founders and of great heroes of each house, of courage and strength and intelligence and friendship and love. The school erupts into applause as the Hat finishes its song. 

The first years are ushered one by one to the stool, the Hat proclaiming each and every one a member of the House that will become their family for the next seven years. No longer as any house viewed with disdain or prejudice: the older students sit mixed, with a blue badge seen amidst a table of green, or a group of yellow mixed with red. But each house welcomes each new addition to its family warmly—the Hall is full of smiles and excitement when the Headmistress stands to silence the room. 

“Before we commence our feast, I would like to make an announcement. We have a new addition to our staff this year, for the position of Defence Against the Dark Arts. I am certain most of your would have heard his name.” The room fills with buzzes as a man, in his late twenties or thirties, steps to the staff table. He regards the students with a shy smile through his glasses, partially obscured by his dark bangs. But there is no mistaking who he is. 

“It’s Harry Potter!” 

“— The Boy Who Lived— ” 

“—hero of the Dark War!” 

Some of the first years look around in confusion, but there is not one amongst the older students who doesn't know who this new teacher is. 

“Let us give a warm welcome, to your new teacher, Professor Potter!” 

The hall immediately erupts in excited cheers, students clutching each other in amazement. The new teacher sheepishly takes a seat next to the Herbology professor, who claps him on the shoulder, as old friends do. With a wave of the Headmistress’s hand, food covers every inch of the table, exciting more cheers as the students tuck into their feast. 

The new year at Hogwarts has begun. 

____

The Muggle-born first year student steps into the Defence Against The Dark Arts classroom for the first time. She has no idea what to expect from this new teacher, supposedly a living legend from the wizarding world. Would he be larger than life, every bit the hero that the other students painted him to be? Would he be immensely talented, outshining anyone in the room? Would he be mysterious or difficult, as people often say that prodigies are? 

The class is abuzz as they wait for class to start. The room’s high ceiling is decorated with moving posters of different magical creatures, of wizards performing spells in blasts of light, lists of words for spells against unusual monsters. The teachers desk is rather bare, with the exception of an empty tank. When the balcony door to the teacher’s room opens, the class immediately falls silent in anticipation. 

Professor Potter steps out, smiling at the fresh faces. He greets them, and tells them about Defence Against the Dark Arts, about Dark spells and life saving spells and about choosing to do the right thing. He has the class enraptured, all the while with a friendly smile as he leans against his desk. 

Eventually, one student, unable to help himself, raises his hand to interrupt. 

“Sir, did you use any of these spells in your fights with Lord Voldemort?” The name is familiar to the Muggle-born student, having heard it a hundred times over, discussed over comfy chairs in the common room. She leans forward, and the entire class holds their breath in anticipation. 

“Indeed I did. These spells were essential to me when I went up against Voldemort, and what I learned within these four walls was what saved me, over and over, during those times.”

“Sir, is it true you taught a class back when you were in school here?” Professor Potter chuckles. 

“No, it wasn’t exactly a class. It was a small group of us, determined to practice our skills outside of the classroom, in a time when practical spells were banned. I only helped to guide some of the other students who were having trouble.” His modesty isn’t lost on them; in their young hearts, they already sense the talent in this young man who stands before them. 

When he has the class stand and practice a simple stun hex on spiders, the Muggle-born student knows without a doubt, that the class already loves him. 

____

Professor Potter was immediately beloved by the student population, for his kindness, his humility and his wonderful lessons, and for the simple fact that he was, despite all the grandeur around his name, rather silly. 

He spent his time joking around with the Professor Longbottom, their boyish laughter often indistinguishable from the students’. He joined in on student outings to prank stores, using his discount at Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes to help them buy up trick toffees to sneak into school, and showed students the secret passages around the school. He sat with the muggle-borns and talked to them about everything they wondered about the wizarding world, and magic, and missing their families and their friends. He helped to set up an email system that could be used from within the school walls, which every Muggle-born adored him eternally for. 

He peppered his lessons with stories about his own, adventurous school years, and his stint as an Auror after the war, and his in his office hung a large poster of Ginny Weasley’s Quidditch team poster, signed by the entire company. He sometimes joined in on student games during breaks— flying around and racing on a broomstick better than any of the Qudditch team players. He cheered the loudest for Gryffindor at every match — he was never known to miss one. And he was, of all, the strongest fighter for house integration, mixing students and helping them form relationships across houses that they would never have thought of. 

It was his more serious side, however, that drew him closest to his pupils. He spoke hauntingly of the war, of the deep fear and divide that grew between Houses, of losing friends to temptation and of those who sought power over friendship and love. He comforted students when they suffered loss, and told them of loving people, even when they were gone. He accompanied students to the woods, stopping with the handful, far too many, who paused to pet the Threstrals. He spoke gravely of Unforgivable Curses, and what he had seen it do to a person’s soul. He spoke of the curse on this job that he occupied, and how it had ended, and how he forged his own path, similar yet so different, from the enemy he had battled so long against. 

Professor Potter, had, without a doubt, become a part of each and every one of his student’s hearts. His NEWT class was the biggest that Defence Against the Dark Arts had seen in decades. And he stayed in that position for years, the longest in over two decades. One might quite say that by coming back to Hogwarts, he was bringing his story full circle. But the students were perhaps far too busy loving him to ever notice that.


End file.
